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Saudi Women’s Leadership Summit Convenes in Crotonville

July 13, 2014 at 05:07pm

Saudi Women’s Summit Saudi Women’s Summit In the most recent World Economic Summit ‘Global Gender Gap’ report, Saudi Arabia ranks third from the bottom out of 135 countries in terms of female ‘economic participation and opportunity.’ This is calculated by looking at areas such as labor force participation, the wage gap between men and women, and the share of female mangers, professionals, technical workers, and government officials.

Particularly in terms of the number of Saudi women in managerial and professional roles, the Kingdom ranked almost at the bottom, even as it was in the top third globally in secondary education for women.

In an initiative that can help improve these numbers, GE recently held a first-of-its-kind summit to engage in a global learning program with Saudi women professionals and further strengthen their leadership competencies. It also was specifically created to define inspirational Saudi women role models for the Kingdom’s young women.

The Saudi Women’s Leadership Summit was held at GE’s Crotonville global leadership institute, located north of New York City, and was attended by more than 50 high-level Saudi women leaders from government, the private sector and civil society.

The program focused on talent and leadership development, with panels on topics such as ‘A Women’s Journey,’ a discussion on ‘The Way Women Work’ by author Rania Anderson, and workshops on leadership styles, the change acceleration process, adaptive leadership, women and self-development, the future workplace and entrepreneurship.

Case studies on various businesses in the Kingdom were discussed, in light of how women can further contribute to the operational efficiency as effective leaders. Special sessions were held on breast cancer to promote Saudi Arabia’s focus on addressing the rising incidence of the disease.

The delegates toured the New York Stock Exchange and attended Saudi cultural events. There were special sessions on GE’s activities in the areas of diversity, including a session on ‘GE and Diversity,’ which covered topics such as the impact of social media and diversity, and leadership development.

Examples of GE’s work to create workplace opportunities for Saudi women include cooperating with Saudi Aramco and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) to launch the first all-female business process services center in Riyadh. It serves as a building block to localize the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry in the Kingdom.

For more on GE’s global approach to diversity, click here. For more GE’s activities to promote workplace diversity in Saudi Arabia and the company’s 80-year commitment to the Kingdom, click here.